Grassroots

Eminently dislikeable political comedy starring Jason Biggs

There’s a lot of things going for Grassroots. It’s a political comedy timed for release when US election fervour is at its peak; it focuses on the same type of community-led campaigning that won Barack Obama his first term; it has the feelgood status of a based-on-a-true-story underdog yarn. Yet none of these elements can save a movie populated by dislikeable characters and written/directed with no aplomb whatsoever by Stephen ‘father of Jake and Maggie’ Gyllenhaal.

It’s possible the real-life Grant was as obnoxious an over-actor as Moore, but that doesn’t make him any more palatable on screen. His ‘impassioned’ speeches about revitalising the city’s monorail sound like self-important delusions rather than inspiring monologues, and as such, there’s little sympathy to be generated for the charmless Phil (Biggs struggling to move on in a post-Pie world) for sticking by him. Only Cedric the Entertainer’s McIver comes across as a likeable human being in the end, and as he’s the opponent of our heroes for much of the film, this only makes us dislike them more.